Tripwire Interactive has announced a new entry to the team’s multiplayer zombie destruction sim in the form of Killing Floor 2 – a game they say “ramps up the gore” for some more over-the-top Zed killing.

Killing Floor 2 is the follow-up to an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, Killing Floor, which was spun into a standalone game in 2009 and has so far sold 2.5 million copies. The sequel, however, ratchets up the gore, technology and features to allow for up to six players in co-operative modes online, but you could always face the terrible creatures Tripwire has created on your own.

New enemies (as well as fan favourites from the original game) are promised, this time with improved AI to increase the challenge of taking them down. You’ll of course have a very wide selection of weapons at your disposal to make confrontations with the twisted beasts more manageable, with a perk system included to enhance your abilities in combat.

Killing Floor 2 – Screenshots

The team also promises that Killing Floor 2 “reinvents melee combat completely” with control over the types of attacks you want to dish out, with “bone-breaking crippling attacks” the result. Here’s another promise from Tripwire:

“Killing Floor 2 ramps up the gore with a proprietary, high powered persistent blood system bringing new levels of fidelity to the genre. Players will send entrails, severed limbs, and blood flying as they wade through hordes of enemies. But they need to watch out! If caught, enemies will rip them, and their entire party limb from limb.”

Ghastly.

Killing Floor 2 Trailer

Killing Floor 2 is due out in Steam Early Access on PC and SteamOS later this year. Here’s the story setup in case you needed any motivation to destroy thousands of zombies keen on chomping your brain:

“Just one month after the events in the original Killing Floor, the specimen clones are everywhere and civilization is in disarray; communications have failed, governments have collapsed, and military forces have been systematically eradicated. The people of Europe know survival and self-preservation too well and lucky survivors have gone into hiding.

“Not all have given up hope though… A group of civilians and mercenaries have banded together to combat the outbreak and established privately funded operation bases across Europe. Upon tracking specimen clone outbreaks, players will descend into zed-laden hot zones and exterminate them.”